Coal mine explosion in China kills 90 people

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A gas explosion at a coal mine in China’s northern Shanxi province killed at least 90 people, state media said on Saturday, in the country’s deadliest mining accident in recent years. Official news agency Xinhua said the accident at Changzhi city’s Liushenyu coal mine happened on Friday evening. Around 247 workers were on duty at the time. Nine miners were still unaccounted for as of Saturday afternoon, Xinhua said, and more than 120 people were hospitalized. The cause of the explosion was under investigation, Xinhua reported, and rescue work is pressing on with hundreds of rescuers and medical personnel sent to the site. Among the injured, many were hurt by toxic gas, according to state media CCTV. Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for an all-out effort to rescue the missing, reported Xinhua. Xi also called for the “proper handling of the aftermath of the accident and urged a thorough investigation into its cause, with accountability pursued in accordance wi...
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Separatist candidate wins presidential vote in Bosnia’s Serb region

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By Branko Filipovic and Daria Sito-sucic Reuters

A close ally of Bosnia’s Serb Republic separatist leader Milorad Dodik won a snap presidential election in a tight race with opposition candidate, the election commission said on Sunday, citing preliminary results.

“According to preliminary, unofficial and incomplete results, Sinisa Karan won 50.89% of the votes,” Jovan Kalaba, the commission’s president, said at a news conference.

Turnout was low at 35.78%, compared with 53% during a general vote in 2022, he said. More than 1.2 million people were eligible to vote. The election commission announced results based on 92.87% of counted votes.

The presidential mandate will last for less than a year since a general election is scheduled next October.

The election was called after Dodik was stripped of his office and banned from politics for six years.

Karan, who currently serves as Serb Republic minister of scientific and technological development, pledged to continue Dodik’s policies “with ever greater force.”

“As always when the times were difficult, the Serb people have won,” Karan said after Dodik had announced his victory at the headquarters of their ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats party (SNSD) party in the town of Banja Luka.

The SDS said it would request the repetition of the vote at three polling stations, citing major election irregularities.

Postwar Bosnia comprises the Serb Republic and the Federation, shared by Croats and Bosniaks, linked via a weak central government.

Pro-Russian separatist Dodik was convicted in February of defying the constitutional court and an international peace envoy, leading to Bosnia’s biggest political crisis since the end of its devastating war 30 years ago.

He repeatedly rejected the verdict but in October unexpectedly appointed a loyal ally as his temporary replacement and annulled a series of separatist laws previously adopted in parliament.

Days later, the United States lifted sanctions imposed against him, his allies and family members, praising the move as a step towards the “stabilisation” of Bosnia.



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/aY1VDRt

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